opposition

(Newser) -
Russia may soon have a president with a "stylish white eye." Not Vladimir Putin, but Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader who made the joke after a not-so-funny incident last week that may leave him partially blind. The New York Times reports Navalny was attacked Thursday in Moscow...
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1K did so in the days after immigration order

(Newser) -
A group determined to turn opposition to President Trump's policies into real change has signed up more than 1,000 young people to run for state or local office in the space of a few days. The Run for Something group, which is seeking people under 35 with progressive...
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Leaders converge on Damascus, may call for talks with government

(Newser) -
A host of Syrian opposition figures gathered in Damascus for a meeting that actually has the blessing of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Despite that approval, it was hard for organizers to find a venue, because many feared the government would attack the summit, the New York Times reports. Some activists...
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Security forces take control of central Manama

(Newser) -
Bahraini security forces detained at least six prominent opposition activists today, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights tells the AP . According to the society, two of those taken were also among the 25 Shiite activists who were released earlier in a bid to ease tensions. Their arrests suggest authorities...
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Tehran formally detains opposition leaders, wives

(Newser) -
Iran is cracking down on its opposition today, jailing prominent leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, reports the AP. The pair and their wives were arrested and taken to Tehran's Heshmatiyeh jail, according to reformist website Kaleme.com. The two have been under house arrest for two weeks for...
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Text messaging and mobile service also slowed, blocked

(Newser) -
With the Iranian opposition staging a fresh wave of protests in the wake of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings, authorities have stepped up a campaign to slow and censor the Internet to sabotage protesters' communication, according to Reporters Without Borders . Broadband service has slowed in major cities, a phenomenon noticed...
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Suleiman says Mubarak has authorized him to begin talks

(Newser) -
Egypt's new vice president said that the government would be willing to begin a dialogue with the opposition in order to mollify the violent protests that have rocked the country, the Wall Street Journal reports. Omar Suleiman said that President Mubarak had asked him to open an "immediate" dialogue...
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Long Timeline and GOP Opposition Have Stifled Support

(Newser) -
Bill Clinton thought that once it was signed into law, Barack Obama's health care reform bill would become amazingly popular. But the polls are in, and now Clinton admits he miscalculated, the Hill reports. "First of all, the benefits of the bill are spread out of three or four...
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Opposition forms new administration in Bishkek

(Newser) -
The government of Kyrgyzstan appeared to collapse today, as the president left the capital amid citywide riots. The opposition party announced it was forming a new government as chaos reigned in the streets. Riot police used live ammunition and tear gas on protesters, leaving at least 41 people dead and...
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Tehran University physicist was a Mousavi supporter

(Newser) -
A nuclear physics professor who publicly backed opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the June presidential election was killed today when a bomb-rigged motorcycle blew up outside his home. State media identified the victim as Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a professor at Tehran University, which has been at the center of...
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Mahdi Karroubi unharmed in attack

(Newser) -
Armed pro-government demonstrators opened fire on the car of an Iranian opposition leader, shattering its windows but leaving him unharmed, his website reported today. The shooting happened late yesterday while former presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi was leaving a building in Qazvin where he'd been staying. Some 500 people were demonstrating...
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Cleric had been in line to succeed supreme leader, fell from favor

(Newser) -
Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who emerged as the spiritual father of its reform movement, died in his sleep overnight. He was 87. Once slated to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Montazeri instead led the charge in accusing the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship...
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Misreading his mandate and talking down to subjects makes president 'ordinary'

(Newser) -
President Obama's big-government dreams have turned him into a modern-day Icarus, Charles Krauthammer writes for the Washington Post. “His wax wings having melted, he is the man who fell to earth.” The magic is gone after “a disastrous summer” of “mistaking his mandate, believing his press,...
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Reformist leader looks to give political legitimacy to post-election opposition

(Newser) -
Mir Hossein Mousavi announced today that he will form a new political group based on the broad opposition that has asserted itself since Iran’s contested elections last month, the BBC reports. Mousavi, the top reformist candidate in those elections, says the organization would give a legal political framework to...
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(Newser) -
Ayatollah Khamenei ruled out political compromise today, telling parliament that Tehran would not “yield to pressure at any cost,” the New York Times reports. “I insisted and will insist on implementing the law on the election issue,” he said. He spoke after Mohsen Rezai, one of...
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Move part of a larger effort to extend govt's reach, say critics

(Newser) -
Venezuela is taking steps to shut down an anti-Chávez TV news station as tensions continue to grow between the government and opposition. Authorities have accused the station of "media terrorism" by covering an earthquake before the government released an official report. Three months after winning a referendum that...
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(Newser) -
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accepted the recommendation of an independent election commission and will delay the country’s national elections until August out of concern for security and fairness, the Washington Post reports. Karzai's term expires in May, and what will happen in the interim between then and August...
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(Newser) -
A melee erupted in South Korea’s parliament today as opposition MPs attempted to break into a closed committee chamber, the BBC reports. Members of the ruling party had barricaded the door as they began the process of ratifying a controversial free trade agreement with the US. Opposition lawmakers used...
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